Amen! There's a lot of new faces this morning. So hello, if you're new this morning, I do want to acknowledge that as well.
We're glad that you're here. If it's your first time, second time, third time here, we love the Lord here. Amen!
We love Him here. We love Jesus, and all we want is Jesus. How many of you have been here for 80% of the series?
Can you just raise your hand if you've been here for 80% of the series? Praise God.
I say that because when you get into a long series, a lot of the times you can lose some people that may have not been here for a greater measure of the series,
because I might be saying some things here today and you're like, doesn't make any sense.
And it's like, well, got to go back and listen to some of the series that we've been on.
So I encourage you to go back on our website. You will find some things that will give you some more clarity and more content,
or context, or whatever you want to say. See, my English, man, I've been learning, but it's not so good.
It'll give you a more understanding of what I'm talking about.
So let me do just a quick Sunday overview, and they're going to jump right in it.
I'm going to try to get you out of here by noon. Can't promise you, but we'll try.
Last Sunday, we touched on a few things. I said why we're in the second phase of the series,
and that is we're walking through the life of our Lord.
Literally, we're walking through the life of Jesus. We're going through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
and we're looking at everything that the Lord did was lowly.
Every decision that the Lord made was lowly. There was a constant progression of our God that kept on going low, low, and low.
And today, the two main things that I want to talk about when we get to them is I'm going to show you,
scripturally, not just explain to you, I'm going to show you scripturally,
that when Jesus entered into the ministry, His way into the ministry was very lowly.
It was very lowly. And then more to that, the way that even the Lord did ministry,
the way that the Lord preached, the way that the Lord cast out devils, the way that the Lord healed the sick,
raised the dead, all these things, when we read the Scriptures and we see the way that Jesus actually did ministry was very lowly.
So last Sunday I said this thing and I want to say it again because one of the reasons of why we're walking through the life of the Lord
is that I want you to know Jesus. As your pastor, I want you to know Jesus.
I don't want you just to know of Him, but I want you to actually know Him.
Big difference. I don't want you just to walk away on a Sunday and say, well, that's cool. That's a cool fact that our pastor said about the Lord.
I want you to leave every Sunday. This is literally my goal when I'm preparing for messages. My goal is Lord, help me.
Help me to stir and provoke the people, to challenge the people that when they hear about you, they go home
and they now begin to implement and they begin to seek you out on their own. I desire for you to know the Lord. That's my desire.
So when I said this thing last Sunday is that which we behold, we actually become. You guys remember that last Sunday?
That which we behold, we actually become.
I said this last Sunday just repeating myself. The reason why majority of the church in our day and age looks like the world is because we're beholding the things of the world.
We're beholding the things of the world, not realizing that we're actually becoming like the world.
So I want us to behold the Lord because if we behold Him, we'll become like Him.
We also talked about the behaviors of goat and sheep. I got a lot of people that texted me last week or this week. It was great, man. It was awesome.
But I showed the difference of goat and sheep. The behaviors of a goat, let's just call them not so lowly.
And the behaviors of the sheep that are very lowly. I'm not going to get into any of that if you want to listen to that.
So yes, I'm calling you a sheep. I'm not calling you a goat. I'm calling you a sheep.
I also touched... This is where I felt the Lord had us parked last Sunday.
Is I touched Matthew 25 where I really expressed that God is found in lowly places.
God is found in lowly places. We oftentimes seek Him up here. We oftentimes think, okay, I got to be up at a pulpit.
I got to be out evangelizing. I got to be out praying for the sick and this and that.
And all those things are good. I'm not disregarding those things. Those things are necessary.
But oftentimes you can get so caught up in these things that you actually miss God in the low places where He's actually found.
Had a conversation with somebody yesterday as somebody who's in full-time ministry.
One of the things that my wife and I always keep ourselves in line and in check.
We do this for one another is we make sure we're not caught up in the ministry of things.
Let me give you an example. When I used to travel a lot for ministry, there was times in my ministry where the anointing of God comes on you and rests on you.
And for three, sometimes even three or more days, the anointing doesn't lift.
Friends, I didn't sleep. I used to literally, my sleep would be, and you're up.
Not recognizing everything that's going on. And then as soon as the anointing begins to subside, then you get a reality check.
And you're like, oh my back, oh my legs, I'm tired, I'm hungry. All these things.
So the thing that my wife and I do, and this is to you guys as well, because some of you are in ministry.
Some of you are doing things for the Lord. You got to keep yourself in check that you don't get caught up
in the whirlwind of ministry and praying for people and doing all these things.
Were you missing the thing that's more important? And that's literally being tucked away with the Lord.
You following me? It's very lowly.
We talked about the Lord, the very little that the scriptures talk to us about Jesus in his teen years and his youth years.
The very little that we find in the scripture, we actually find that Jesus was very lowly even as a young boy.
Very lowly. We talked about that last Sunday.
And the last thing I said is that I wanted to kind of emphasize again today is, you know, we talk about lowliness.
We do all these things, you know, and we've been in this series.
But I want us to really be real with ourselves.
Because I said lowliness of mind, the best way that we can measure and ask ourselves, am I lowly?
The question is, are you embodying the scriptures?
And we talked about that last Sunday as well.
Coming out of James 2.
To be doers of the word.
Not just hearers of it.
We can measure ourselves by being real with us and being, hey, am I actually embodying what death to self looks like?
Am I embodying grace?
Am I embodying mercy?
Am I embodying repentance?
Am I embodying forgiveness?
All these things that we can find in the scripture that fall under the camp,
where I should say under the blueprint of lowliness of mind.
I want us to be real with ourselves.
And not lie to ourselves, because we can do that.
Amen?
Alright, let us pray and then we can open up our Bibles to Matthew chapter 3.
So Father, we thank you.
We thank you, Lord.
We thank you, Holy Spirit.
We thank you for the scriptures.
We thank you for this time.
And I pray, Lord, that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see.
That you would meet us, Lord, where we are at.
You would meet us where we are at, Lord.
Each and every one of us, God, we are in a different place in our life, God.
And I'm asking you that you would meet us where we are at this morning.
Unveil our eyes to see, Lord.
Unveil our eyes to see Jesus.
Let us behold Him.
Let us behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
And Holy Spirit, where I am limited as a man,
I pray that you would go deep into the depths of the heart of men and women this morning.
Wash over us this morning, Lord, by your word.
Wash over us this morning by your word.
In Jesus' name, if you agree with me, would you say amen?
Amen.
Matthew chapter three.
How many of you have your Bibles this morning?
Amen. Praise God.
Pastor, I'm not being legalistic here, I promise.
I'm just encouraging the people.
That's all I'm doing.
Matthew chapter three.
So we want to... I want to show you...
I want to show you a few things here that literally describe the lowliness of how our Lord Jesus
entered into the ministry.
By a show of hands, by a show of hands, how many of you
know that you know, that you know, that you know
that God has called you into full-time ministry?
Raise your hands, lift them high.
Lift them high.
I got to see your hands, like high, please.
Okay.
Okay.
Higher.
Can you do it higher for me?
Thank you.
I'm being serious here.
Keep them up.
Okay.
Thank you.
You can put your hands down.
For those that lifted your hands, pay very, very close attention to what I'm about to talk about.
Pay very, very close attention to what I'm about to talk about.
Let me ask this question.
How many of you know that God has called you in some facet of ministry?
It doesn't have to be full-time ministry.
It could be part-time.
It could be serving.
Lift your hands high.
Can you do that for me?
Okay.
I need you to pay attention to what I'm saying.
Okay.
Not for the third group of people.
How many of you know that you are called to preach the gospel?
How many of you know that you are called to be a worshiper?
I mean, everybody's hands should be up right now, actually.
There you go.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Listen to this because oftentimes if you we read the way that our Lord entered into the
ministry, the way...
Think of it this way.
For 30 years, the Lord was doing life.
You know, life like we do it.
He had his family.
He was breaking bread.
He was doing all these things.
And then all of a sudden, there comes a time in his life where now it's time
for him to actually come to the forefront for his destiny to be fulfilled.
To be unveiled, so to say.
And in this time that God is literally that Jesus is being unveiled.
Think of it this way.
From the seeker place, the Father brings him forth.
And now the Son of God is being brought to the forefront, is being brought to the
platform, so to say.
We got to pay attention to the way that he actually entered into the ministry.
We got to pay attention to that.
Because we have this...
We, and I'm putting myself into this because this is the way that I thought it,
we think that entering into full-time ministry should be this big grand thing.
There should be fireworks because, well, here comes Pastor Igor strutting down.
Look at him.
We think there should be different things.
And it's like, no, no.
If you study and if you look, the way that our Lord was actually presented
into the ministry to enter it, and we pay attention to some of the details
of how lowly it was, it'll get your perspective changed.
And you'll be like, man, I don't even know if I want to do ministry anymore.
And you want to know the truth?
It's going to be a hard thing I'm going to say.
I would rather have you think that way than say, yeah, I'm going to do ministry.
You think that's weird, Pastor.
No, I'd rather have you think, I don't know if I want to go there.
Because here's the truth. Listen to me, listen to me.
Here is the truth.
Even though you might be saying, I don't know if I want to go there.
If it really is a destiny on your life, it's not up to you if you're following the Lord.
Did you hear me?
Sorry.
It's restricted me, Pastor.
So here we see Jesus, the Son of God.
Remember from the first series, or from the first two Sundays ago.
Here we see a God who created all of creation.
He was there. The scripture says, in him and through him were all things made.
Now this same God steps down into creation, born of a virgin, all these things.
Remember, I'm just trying to get your mind to think.
Now we have this God.
You would think, okay, if you're God, okay, I saw your loneliness here, but now it's your time.
Now it's your time, God.
You're coming up to the forefront to do ministry, full-time ministry.
Now we're thinking, okay, now God's not going to be lowly, but yet still in that, our Lord enters in lowly.
Listen to this. Let me read it here.
Matthew chapter 3, verse 13.
Now Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
Pause, pause for just a second, just that first verse there.
Now Jesus travels to the Jordan where John the Baptist, the baptizer as he's known,
is now baptizing multitudes of people.
How many of you know who John was to Jesus? Can somebody tell me?
So here we got God, the Son of God, who has entered or is being introduced into the ministry,
is now being baptized not by a Pharisee, not by a scribe, not by some high person that's influential.
He is being baptized by his cousin.
Who is actually deemed to be a lesser than in society.
You guys ever studied the life of John? He was weird, man.
This brother was eating locust and honey, I mean, wearing fur.
This dude, I can imagine if a John the Baptist in that day walked in,
I guarantee you this row right here would clear.
They'd say that dude's weird.
Big old beard, hair is like crazy.
My brother the other day said, he goes, dude, he goes, you look like John the baptizer.
I said, thank you. I take that as an appreciation, man.
Look at this hair, man. It's flowing.
So John the Baptist is this guy that's deemed a lesser than in society.
And now the Lord comes in.
You said something, didn't you?
All right. See, we love that you guys are back.
Honestly, can we give one more round of applause?
Seriously, I am so thankful that you guys are back.
Thank you. We love our pastors.
So John the Baptist is a lesser than in society is a cousin of Jesus.
Now has the privilege to baptize our Lord.
How many of us, just think of your cousin right now real quick.
Just think of your cousin real quick.
That's right. Yep.
Cousin Steve, cousin Bob, whatever their name is.
Imagine the Lord is telling you, you need to be baptized by your cousin.
Just imagine that for a second.
How many of us would actually do that?
I mean, honestly, how many of us would actually allow our cousin
who everybody else says is weird?
He's different.
He's eating locust and wild honey and he lives out in the wilderness
and he's dressed in camel hair and his belt and all this stuff.
And it's like, how many of us would actually do that though?
Like honestly, like be honest with yourself.
I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't know if I'd do it.
I don't know if I'd do it.
So the Lord comes into the scene
here we read verse 13.
Then Jesus came on reading it again.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan
to be baptized by him.
Now verse 14.
And John tried to prevent him
saying, I need to be baptized by you
and you are coming to me.
So now we read that John recognizes.
John recognizes, because remember what
the Gospel of John, he records
that John the baptizer said,
behold, so here Jesus is walking
and John records in his Gospel.
He says, behold the Lamb of God
that takes away the sins of the world.
In other words, John the baptizer is prophesying
and he's saying, here is the Messiah
that the prophets and the fathers have spoken about.
Now remember there's multitudes at this point.
There's multitudes at this point that are around John.
So John makes this prophetic statement.
He makes this call that everybody would hear
and then he says, listen Jesus,
I can't baptize you.
I should actually be baptized by you.
So John even recognizes the lowliness of our God.
In other words, he's saying, Lord listen,
this is not the way that I think
you should answer into full-time ministry.
There has to be another way, Lord.
There has to be a different route.
There has to be somebody else
that it's of a higher status in society
that maybe is a little more influential,
that maybe their ministry is a little bit bigger
and all this stuff.
And Jesus simply replies to him there in Matthew.
He says, no, no, no.
Let it be so that all righteousness would be fulfilled.
In other translations it says,
let it be so that the scriptures would be fulfilled.
In other words, let it be this way
because the scripture, all righteousness,
talks about the lowliness of our God.
It talks about the nature of our God.
So Jesus is saying, he says, listen John,
let it be so that my nature can be shown
to the multitudes that are around you.
Of how lowly I am.
See, even in his entrance into the ministry,
the Lord is lowly.
There is a constant progression of our God
that keeps going lower and lower
and lower and lower still.
Brought into the ministry by a cousin
that society deems worthless.
Remember, remember friends,
that when the Pharisees and the teachers of the law
when they came to John, the baptizer,
and they asked him, they said, who are you?
They said, who are you?
He said, I'm not a Messiah, I'm not the Messiah,
I'm not a prophet, he just said, I'm a voice.
So let me now bring this together.
Jesus was baptized simply by a voice.
By a voice. That's it.
It wasn't Benny Hinn. It wasn't Billy Graham.
It wasn't Ray Harbonke. It wasn't somebody
that was well-known.
It was simply by a man that said, I'm a voice.
That's it.
I carry no other title. I have no reputation.
And that's by whom our Lord was baptized by.
And the more to that, here he baptizes him.
The scripture says John baptizes him.
And all of a sudden when Jesus comes out of the water,
the Bible says the heavens rip open.
The heavens rip open and now a dove descends
and rests on our Lord.
Now you're saying, well, that's not grandpastry
or that's not lowly pastor Igor.
That's grand. No friends. It's lowly.
And let me tell you why it's lowly.
You're ready for this?
This is from open heavens if you were here
this last year or 2025.
I talked about this.
The only three times that God the Father
stood up from his throne and audibly spoke
in the life of Jesus.
In the 33 years that our Lord lived,
there's only three times that the scriptures record
that God the Father stood up,
audibly spoke that the heavens tore open.
There was only three times.
And do you know what, every time it was around?
It was around death.
All three times that the Father spoke audibly
in the context of what Jesus was doing
was a very low thing and that was death.
Being baptized, dying to be raised with Christ.
Mount of transfiguration.
What was the context around there?
The Lord was talking about his suffering,
about his death.
And then in John 12 we see the third recording
of where Jesus has given the parable of a seed
that dies.
And if it, if and only when it dies,
then it only produces.
So though it seems grand that the heavens tear open
and hear the Father speaks and everybody hears,
but we got to understand the only reason
why it made the Father do that
was in the context of being lowly.
You want to hear God talk to you in your life,
audibly?
You got to go low.
You want to hear the audible voice of God
in your life?
You got to go low and you got to progress.
Progress to go low.
And even when and even when God speaks
and multitudes hear, you're not swayed by it.
Because the Lord wasn't swayed by it.
I said our Lord wasn't swayed by it.
You know what happened next after the heavens
tear open and the dove descends?
You know what happens next?
The scriptures tell us and Mark records this.
I believe it's chapter two.
Mark records this and the Bible says
all this grand stuff happens.
Jesus doesn't stand there and say
I'm speaking in Russian there real quick.
Do you know what the scripture says?
The scripture says that the spirit
drove him into the wilderness.
The spirit of God then drove our Lord
into the wilderness.
It wasn't days later, it was right after.
It was right after.
We think the entrance into the ministry
is going to be this grand thing.
As soon as I get into full-time ministry,
watch me.
I'm going to be doing things.
God's like, yeah, but that's not how it works in my books.
I'm going to tuck you away for years.
I'm going to hide you for years until I know.
And I will even delay.
I believe God will even delay our destinies
until we're ready.
No, no, you didn't hear me.
I'm telling you, you didn't hear me.
I said, God will delay your destiny
until your heart is ready.
God will delay the things that he wants you
to walk out and to fulfill.
He will delay it, not for his sake.
Don't worry about it.
God's got plenty of people.
He has a remnant that will obey him
on to death.
They will obey the Lord.
It's not for his sake that he's losing something,
but if you're being delayed,
it's simply for you.
You're missing out.
Until your heart is ready
and tucked away when you're with them
and you're tucked away.
Then when your heart is ready,
God will begin to expose you.
I've even seen it in my own life.
Let me give you an example.
In the earlier days of my ministry,
God would bring me out.
I'd go do this big conference.
I'd go do this huge youth group.
And then all of a sudden, he tucked me away.
And I'm like, but God,
you saw everything that was going on.
People delivered.
People healed.
All this stuff.
But God's like, yeah, but your heart's not ready yet.
I saw the way that you responded.
I saw the way that your body changed
when all this stuff happened.
You're not ready yet.
I simply showed you what's to come,
but you're not ready yet.
And then it went even more.
You guys ready?
I'm sharing for my own life here with you.
And then God calls me and my wife
for two and a half years, tucked us away.
Friends, I went from preaching to two to three times a month
to preaching five times in two and a half years.
And you know what the Lord was talking to me about
in that time?
He said, son, he said,
you love this pulpit right here
more than you love being with me by yourself.
See, this right here,
this tucking away can never, listen to me,
this is living a lowly life.
This is living a lowly life.
This right here being tucked away with the Lord
should never, I said should never exceed this right here.
Should never exceed it.
This right here tucked away with the Lord
should never exceed the laying on of hands
and the manifestations of the Spirit
and the signs and the miracles and the wonders.
You know what problem we have in the church?
We have people chasing signs, miracles, and wonders.
When I read the scriptures, the scripture says
that signs, miracles, and wonders they shall follow.
They shall follow.
So why are we chasing them?
That is not lowly.
That is a pride thing in your heart that has to be addressed.
The scriptures tell us they follow us.
We don't chase them.
To live lowly is to be tucked away
and it should never exceed God right here.
Right here, Lord.
This should never exceed this in the public eye.
And when it does, things are going to go awry.
And that was a rhyme and you can quote that.
Our Lord gets baptized, raises from the water.
The spirit of God descends on him.
Then, then, the spirit of God drives him into the wilderness.
All these things are speaking about the lowliness.
Our God is still progressing.
He's still going low, driven into the wilderness
by the spirit of God.
And the Bible says for 40 days and 40 nights
he wrestled with wild beasts.
Tempted by Satan.
Fasting.
Some of us can barely fast for a day.
Our Lord fasted for 40 days
and on top of that, he had good old Satan
sitting there and tempting him.
You see, it's interesting
because when the Lord was brought into the wilderness
there is things there that occurred in the wilderness
that we oftentimes miss.
The scriptures tell us in Genesis 3
that Adam and Eve were tempted with three things
by the serpent.
Those three things are pride of life.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Lust of the eyes.
Thank you so much.
Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh,
and pride of life.
Those are the three things.
If you actually read and you pay attention
to what Genesis 3 says,
the way that the serpent actually tempted Adam and Eve,
those are the three things.
Now when you read Jesus being drawn into the wilderness,
the same three things that Adam and Eve were tested with,
now our Lord is being tested with those same three things.
Pay attention to it in the scriptures.
Read your scriptures.
The same three things that Adam and Eve failed in,
now our Lord has to go back
and think of it this way.
He has to now clean up their mess.
That's why the scripture says that he is the greater Adam.
They say Jesus is the greater Adam.
So our Lord goes back into the,
or gets driven by the spirit into the wilderness,
is now tempted by the same three things
that Adam and Eve were tempted by,
yet the Lord actually succeeds in it.
You know, the scriptures say this,
and let me read this.
I'm going to go ahead of my notes here
because I need to connect this.
This is in...
Open up Matthew 5. Let me read this quick.
Matthew chapter 5, verses 17.
Matthew 5, 17.
Here the Lord is speaking.
And he says,
Do not think that I came to destroy the law
or the prophets.
I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
I want you to pay attention to something here.
The things that Adam and Eve...
I want to show you the lowliness of the Lord.
I want to show you his lowliness
so that you would behold him.
The things that Adam and Eve
did not succeed in.
Our Lord goes back
because he's lowly.
Remember, he's God.
Okay, friends, let me give you this perspective first.
He's God.
He can do all things.
He can flip the script in a snap of a finger.
You know that he has the ability
to flip the script in a snap of a finger.
He can do whatever he wants.
He's God.
He is the Lord.
And you would think,
okay, you're God, you're high, you're mighty.
Would you not have just flipped the script
and not have to have your son go all the way back
as he steps into creation?
Now the son has to go all the way back
and he has to restore
that which was lost in the Garden of Eden.
Now our Jesus has to go back,
think of it as back to the Garden of Eden
and he has to be tempted
with the three same things
that Adam and Eve were tempted with.
Now our Lord restores that.
He accomplishes it.
And he says, he says there in Matthew 5,
he says, listen, I have not come to abolish the law
and the prophets.
Do you know what law he's talking about?
He's not just talking about the physical law.
He's talking about the spiritual law
that was set by the Father into motion
since the creation of the world.
Because the law and the prophets
when we read what Moses did,
Moses went up to Mount Sinai
and he got his ten commandments up there.
Though it was a law to be instituted
to people to live by,
we got to understand where Moses got it.
It was a spiritual law
that God the Father set into motion
and then he brings it down
and he institutes it into our realm of living.
So Jesus comes and he says, listen,
I have not come.
Think of it this way.
I have not come.
When he is saying I'm not here to abolish the law,
the Lord is basically saying
I have not come to flip the script.
I'm not here to flip it.
I'm actually here to fulfill it.
And the Lord fulfilled the whole law
because he was lowly.
Romans 6 says the wages of sin is death.
That's a spiritual law.
I said that's a spiritual law.
The Father set it into motion.
The wages for you to pay
for your sin, you have to die.
That's the only atonement that you have.
It has to be
bloods of goats, lambs and bulls
that will only actually wash you away.
But now on the scene comes the Lamb of God
whose blood is far more sufficient
than the blood of bulls, goats and sheep and lambs.
Now we have the Lamb of God
that comes and actually fulfills the whole law
for the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God,
I said the gift of God is eternal life.
So our Lord is lowly.
He didn't come in, flipped the script when it got hard.
You know, we oftentimes do that.
How many times do we flip the script in our life
when things get hard?
When we got to address something in our life
that's really personal,
whether it's a conflict with somebody
or we're in an argument
or we're gossiping about somebody.
Friends, we're gossiping about somebody
and we in those moments,
we flip the script.
You know how we flip it?
Well, I really wasn't gossiping.
I was just sharing.
Stop flipping the script.
Stop flipping the script, man.
Go low.
Go and admit to the person.
Listen.
I've been talking about you in a bad way.
Would you please forgive me?
I repent going low.
The Lord did not flip the script.
You want to live lowly?
You can't flip the script in your life.
You can't flip it and think
and find justification
in the way that you're flipping it.
Well, Lord, I didn't flip it fully.
It's kind of like this.
This is lowliness, friends.
If we say, Lord, conform us
into the image of you,
then stop flipping the script
in your life and go low.
You got to issue with somebody.
You go and you talk to them.
Don't go tell Betty
and then Betty tells Stacey
and then Stacey runs and tells Pastor Vern
and then Pastor Vern runs and tells me.
Don't do that.
You got an issue. You come and you talk to them.
Hey, man.
Hey, woman.
But we, but we think, well, I'm so low.
I'm not even going to go and talk to them.
I'm going low.
I don't want to address this.
I'm going low.
I'm not going to deal with this.
Friends, I'm being honest. That's how we think.
Don't lie to yourself.
Don't lie to yourself.
We are all susceptible
to fall into that. You got an issue.
You're offended. Go and talk to them.
Amen.
The Lord did not flip it.
The Lord fulfilled it.
Back to Adam and Eve.
Addresses that.
You know what's interesting?
Listen to this because I got to read it for you.
Open up Mark.
Let's go Mark 4, I think, is where it is.
Is this still good?
Mark 1. I'm sorry, not Mark 4.
Mark 1.
Where is it here? Where is it here?
I have it in my notes and I may find it here quick.
I'm so sorry.
Give me a minute here.
Maybe it was Matthew.
Anywho, I'll find it later.
This is what's interesting.
I'll find it later for you and we can put it up.
Is that
the first time
that we see the mention
that Jesus walked in power?
Pay attention.
The first time
that we see the scriptures tell us
that Jesus walked in power
was only after
he came out of the wilderness.
The only time
we find the scriptures
begin to say
that Jesus walked
in power
was after
he went so low
that then
the Father said, I can trust you.
I can trust you
to now walk
in a measure of power
where the Lord would look at you
and you'd be healed.
Where the Lord would speak a word
and you'd be healed.
Can I... oh man, I feel the Lord on this.
Can I tell you...
because we're always praying God and we want these things
and we want these things
and I'm going to be real with you.
I can't wait
for the day in my ministry
that I don't lay hands on people
but I come out on pulpits
and people get healed.
Do you know why it's not occurring yet?
Because some of you are like, well, why isn't it occurring?
Do you know why it's not occurring yet?
That means that God hasn't found trust in me yet
to that level.
I'll be honest with you.
Does God trust me? I know he does.
But there is measure of God's
trust that he has to give to us.
So we're here
praying for these things
and then we don't see them happening.
So then we question, well, does God hear my prayers?
Does God hear me when I'm praying
for people? Why aren't these manifestations
happening? Friends, ding ding ding
the only time that the Scripture
says that Jesus
walked out in power was only
after, was only after
he was in the wilderness
for 40 days and for 40 nights
tempted by the devil,
wrestled with wild beasts. Then
the Father said, now I can trust
you to go out
and let the reputation of who you are
spread.
Only then
only then
the Father found
trust.
You want to see manifestations
of that? You better go
solo in your life that even when
these things happen, you're not standing
as you're just going. Because Lord, this
right here, this right here
is more important than this right here.
And that's what the Lord Jesus was about.
He wasn't swayed
by the power. He knew
and he said, I only do
what the Father does.
I only do what I see my
God do, what I see my Father
do. And for us to be able
to use language like that, you
got to know him here.
You got to know him tucked away.
You got to know him in the Scriptures.
You got to know him here
to be able to make
a statement like that and actually
have that statement be true.
See, that's
very lowly.
That's lowly.
Do you know how I can recognize when somebody
is walking in lowliness? When I
begin to see a level of trust
of God in their lives.
That for me is a recognition
that person is lowly.
Do you know how I know our pastors
are very lowly? Because I can
recognize that God trusts
them more than he actually
trusts me.
Lowliness
will produce
a measure of power
in our lives that we
have never experienced before.
I hear stories of Catherine
Kuhlman. She comes out
to the platform and without even
saying anything, she comes out
to the platform and I think
Benny Hinn said 46 people just stood
out of wheelchairs.
She didn't have to say anything
but because God
trusted this woman of God
to such a measure that all she
had to do is just come out on the platform.
Boom! Demons are manifesting. Boom!
People are being healed. Boom! And that
didn't sway her. She just continued
preaching Christ and him crucified.
She continued to talk about the Holy
Spirit. She didn't draw the attention
and see, look, look how many people
are being healed. Look what's happening.
No, she just went on.
Because she's low. Wasn't swayed
by the eyes of men and women.
She just went low knowing
that God trusts her.
We can live lives like that.
I said we can live
lives like that.
We can go low. This is not just for
a certain chosen people. If you were
called by God, which I believe
each and every one of you were
because he died on the cross for you.
Just like he died for me, he died
for you. And we have an
opportunity to go so low
that we're not swayed when all these
manifestations happen.
Now what the problem is
is that we oftentimes stop
and we behold
the manifestation more
than we behold the manifestor.
You didn't hear me.
You didn't hear me. Let me
say it so that this penetrates through your skull.
We oftentimes
we stop and we behold
the manifestation
more than we behold the manifestor.
That's not
lowly.
I don't find that in the life of our
Lord. I don't find
him stopping and saying look.
And some of you are saying well I don't
do that. I don't stop and say look
friends, it's not what you do in the external
it's what happens in here.
It's what happens in here.
Lowliness of mind is not
an external thing. It is an internal
thing. Right in here and right
in here.
That's lowliness of mind.
So our God
goes low.
Comes out of the wilderness in power.
That to me is an indicator
that if we as a church
can go low
as I believe God is calling us
to go low, this is
the blueprint for the end time
revival.
We talk about
Joel 2.
We talk about Acts 2.
The outpouring of the spirit
and we're excited for those stuff. And I
am too. But here is my question.
How do we get to that?
How does God begin to
trust us with such an outpouring
that it says every
man, every woman, every boy, every girl
shall prophesy. Dreams
visions, miracles, signs, wonders
all these things are happening.
How do we get there?
You got to go low like the Lord did.
You got to make decisions in your life
that are very lowly
decisions
to see that
measure of outpouring in our
lives.
I'm telling you I can't wait
for the day when God begins to trust me
with himself to the measure
that I can come out on pulpits and people just get healed.
And I'm going to keep preaching Jesus.
I'm going to keep preaching the Lord.
I said I'm going to keep preaching Jesus.
And we'll let the Holy Spirit do what the Holy Spirit
does.
You with me?
When the Lord was
in the ministry
when the Lord was in the ministry
the way that he even did ministry was very lowly
the way that
he prayed for
people with unclean spirits
Oh, thank you Lord. The way that
he prayed
for unclean spirits and people with devils
was very lowly.
Me and Pastor were talking this week in the office
and I'm sharing with him some of this stuff.
And Pastor goes, hey, go read
what was it? Mark, I think you told me to read.
Is it in Mark it's recorded?
Where that boy
was demon possessed
and the scriptures say, I think this is recorded.
Let me tell you where it's actually recorded.
This is Mark chapter 9 verse 14.
I believe it's Mark chapter 9 verse 14.
There's many deliverances and I'm not going to
read all of them, but I just want to quickly tell you
just for the sake of time.
When this young boy for many years
was possessed by devils
and the father of this young boy comes
to Jesus and he says,
you got to deliver my son, man.
Your disciples tried, they couldn't.
I mean, you got to deliver, you got to deliver
my boy. And it's interesting
there that when Jesus
the scripture
says that when the multitudes
when they started coming
to see what's going on.
This ruckus, because there's a young boy
that's like flaring and all this
manifestation is happening.
The scripture says that the crowds were running.
They were running. They weren't there yet.
They were still running
to where the Lord and his father,
this father of the boy was.
The Lord actually cast out the devil
before all the
rest of the crowds came.
Jesus did not wait.
He didn't stand there and wait and say,
alright, devil, come on. Wait for everybody
to gather and he says, watch what I'm going to do.
And he cast out the devil. The Lord
specifically did it
in a way where the crowds weren't even
there yet. Because Jesus
wasn't there to entertain.
Jesus wasn't beholding
the manifestation, but he was
beholding the manifestor.
The way that our Jesus cast
out devils, I mean so many times
we read in scriptures. The demon
says, oh, we know who you are. You're the son
of God. And he says, shut up.
Out of him.
Get out.
He wasn't standing there because
here's the problem that I see even in the
Pentecostal world. People that are
so heavy in deliverance, they
make it as though it's an entertainment.
That's exactly right.
Friends, I have
fellow ministers that I've watched.
They handle deliverance
like it's an entertainment.
And they'll
step on their feet and
they'll stand all proud and they'll
look and they'll do this stuff.
And I'm like, what
have we come to?
Why are we treating a deliverance
like it's an entertainment for
others to be scared and
for others to have their ears tickled?
It gives us
something to talk about
when we leave Sunday service.
Does it not?
What?
Man, we had a girl manifest.
We had a dude that manifested.
He was foaming out of his mouth.
And it gives us something to talk about.
Why?
We're treating the manifestation
as though it's this entertainment
for a whole body of Christ to look at.
That's why you see me so often
when things begin to occur in our church
services. I've been saying this for years.
This is not a spectacle
for you to look at and
gaze. What's going on?
This is not a spectacle.
If it happens, let it happen.
Let it happen. I will not restrict
that. I will let and I believe
you will let demons manifest because
people are tormented by them. I'm not
going to tell people, wait, everybody's
looking.
But at the same time,
from a crowd's perspective,
we're looking at it as a spectacle.
It's not a spectacle.
It's not a spectacle.
That is not lowly.
That is not lowly. The way that the Lord
cast out devils was lowly.
He didn't wait for the crowds to run.
He didn't wait to let the devils
go and rattle off who he was.
He silenced them.
Out. Get out. I know who I am.
You get out. I don't need you to tell me
who I am.
I've seen people in the deliverance ministry.
They'll stand and the demons manifesting
and the demon is saying what it said to
the sons of
the sons of
Sceva. I've seen demons
do that. They're claiming
you're so and so and you're mighty
and the person's standing there and he's
observing and letting the demon
Why? Why do you
need to hear a reassurance from a
demon of who you are?
Why are we listening to an
unclean spirit telling us
who I am when the Holy Spirit
right here will tell me who I
am?
But the problem is that we're out here
and we're looking for reassurance
of who we are in Christ because
here we're nowhere to be
found.
So we're not hearing the Holy Spirit
tell us who I am. Who are you?
We're waiting for others
to tell us who we are. We're
waiting for devils and unclean spirits
and people within the church to say
oh man you are mighty
you are powerful, you're a child
of God, you're this, you're that, the third
and it's good. I'm all about encouraging
and exhorting one another, but
if that's where we get our butter and our
bread, we're missing it.
We're missing it. This is where I get my
butter and my bread and here is just
the confirmation. Cool that you told me
that. Thank you. Thank you that you said
that I look like Jesus. I appreciate that.
But right here, but right here I know
that I am not yet conformed
to the full image that God has me to be.
That's right.
Are you following me?
I said are you following me?
The way that the Lord even did
deliverance was lowly. The way
that the Lord healed people
was lowly. You
read the scriptures for yourself and you
will find time and time
and time again. Jesus would heal
the leper, Jesus would heal somebody
sick and he would say these words
I charge you not
to tell anyone.
I
said the Lord
says I charge you
not to tell
anyone.
Go and give your sacrifice.
Go and bring
your sacrifice before the teachers.
They'll see it.
They'll see that you were a leper
and now you came and you're healed.
They'll see that you were blind
and then you see they'll see it.
Can I tell you something?
The Lord actually never
advertised his ministry.
I said the Lord actually
never advertised his
ministry. He did not have
Instagram. He did not
have Facebook. He did not
have TikTok. He did not have
posters. The Lord did not have
a creative department
in his church. Now I'm not
saying it's wrong to have those things.
But I'm trying to
stress to you of how
lowly our God is.
He went so low
that the Father trusted him
with such a measure of power
of heavenly power that
he walked and the scripture says
news of him spread.
Friends, we're living
in 2025. Do you know
what the best advertisement still is
to this day? Word of mouth.
We're living in 2025
and the same
advertisement that has
shown time and time
and time again that it's
successful is the word of mouth.
The Lord went lowly.
So low that God
trusted him. And he
walked out. The scripture says
he walked out of the wilderness
in power to begin his ministry.
You still with me?
Yes.
The Lord
went so low in his ministry
even to the heights of his place
he never neglected the low
people in society.
It's interesting to me
I've been around enough ministers
that have large churches. It's interesting
enough to me that when somebody
gets to such a high and lofty place
Yeah, I'm going to stop right there.
I'm not going to go there further.
Yeah, thank you Lord.
The Lord went lowly.
That he even sat with tax collectors
with prostitutes
with sinners
with all sorts of people the Lord sat
and broke bread with them.
He sat with them.
He never got to a place where he would look
at a tax collector and he'd say no, no, no man.
We ain't doing this thing.
But he actually said
Hey, let's go break bread.
Let's go sit down.
Let's talk.
But here's where we were talking about this
the other day. Here's where
things in the church go awry.
People preach that.
That God is lowly.
That God meets you where you're at.
And those are all true things. Those are all true things.
But I want you to pay attention to something
that often times churches miss the touch.
Yes, the Lord goes and he sits
with people that are sinners.
Yes, he sits with people that are
tax collectors, all these low
people that are living in complete sin.
But here's something that we never touch on.
The Lord doesn't sit there
and indulge with them in their sin.
The Lord comes, he meets them
and then he takes them higher.
Listen to me.
You want to invite me? You want to invite pastors?
I'll come sit with you. I'm not calling you sinners.
Just understand my analogy here.
I'll come sit with you.
But if I or somebody else
in the ministry sees sin in your life,
do not expect me to be
indulging in the sin with you.
I'll call you higher as your pastor.
I'm not going to condemn you. I'm not going to say
that you're this, that and the other.
I will simply call you higher.
Am I saying it right pastor?
The Lord was never too high.
He met people where they were at.
He sat. He broke bread.
He did these things.
But then he called these people higher.
He didn't indulge with them and we don't talk
about that enough. Do you know that?
Here's the thing about the Lord
when he was in the ministry.
Is that he would often times
the scripture says he often times
withdrew. This goes back
to what I'm saying. He was never swayed
by the crowds. The Lord was actually
never swayed by how
many eyes were on him and friends.
There was multitudes.
There was multitudes.
Read the scriptures. There was
thousands when he
multiplied the bread and the fish the first
and the second time. It's plural.
It wasn't 1,000. It was
thousands that came.
But the Lord was never swayed
by it. He lived a lowly life
which means that
when he would preach, after
he was done, the scripture tells us
that he often times withdrew
himself. Couldn't
find the Lord.
His disciples sometimes for days
couldn't find the Lord. He withdrew.
Why? To be with the Father.
I heard a man of God that I've met.
We've broke bread together. Awesome man.
He's got a ministry in California.
He told me an advice one time. He said
you got to do this. This is like early
to like 2020, 2021 is when
I met him. He said listen.
He goes this is what I do. He goes
before we do a big conference.
He goes I'm away with the Lord
for like two, three days. I'm away from my family.
I'm away from and I go and I tuck myself
away. Whether it's in a cabin, whether
it's somewhere and he goes I'm with him.
And then he goes after the conference.
He goes I go for another two, three
days after the conference and I
go be with the Lord by myself. And I'm
like why? He goes because when God begins
to move and you begin to
see God move in such a way, he
says I want to stay on top of my pride.
He
said I want to stay on top of my pride.
So he goes we'll have a conference
for six days. You see God
do some mighty, mighty miracles and
he goes you have to walk out of that
conference and he goes I keep my heart
in check and I go and I tuck myself away
with the Lord for two, three days. And I allow
the Lord to humble me. I allow the
Lord to realign me so that when I come
back I'm not macho macho man.
Recognizing that if it wasn't for
God, if it wasn't for my lowliness
and God being able to trust me,
none of this would have happened.
Right.
To be tucked away with them friends.
I know we've talked about this our whole
series but I'm telling you that's where
a lowly life begins.
That's where a lowly life begins.
The lowly life doesn't begin
here. The lowly life begins
here and then this
here will launch us
into being lowly out here.
I don't know how else
to stress it to you.
But the Scripture says that
He withdrew himself often.
We're coming to an end here.
The way that the Lord chose
His disciples, the 12 apostles
was lowly.
You ready for this?
We have churches
and we have people in the ministry
that want
people to be a part of their
ministry teams. They have to be perfect.
They have to be excellent. They have to be this, that and the third.
Where the Lord
chose a bunch of young
20-year-old dudes that were
fishermen. That were
tax collectors.
These were people of a low
deemed society. Now, the question
is did they love the Lord? I'm sure
they did. I'm sure they did.
But even the
so-called team members
that Jesus chose
to be His 12 apostles was
lowly. Friends, we're going to talk
about this more next Sunday. He chose
somebody on His own
team to be the one that is actually
going to betray Him.
You didn't catch it. You didn't catch it.
No, no, you didn't catch what I just said.
I said, our God is so lowly.
He chose
Judas Iscariot to be
a part of the inner circle,
the 12
to be the one that's going to
betray Him. That's lowly.
The scripture tells us that He knew
that this was the guy
that was going to betray Him.
Yet He still invited Him
to sit in the inner circles
to break bread, to do this, to do
that, to be in charge of the
money, to be a treasurer.
We miss that.
Our Lord is lowly.
He's lowly.
So He chooses
these 12 guys that are completely
incompetent.
You probably wanted somebody that maybe
did four years in seminary. I'm sorry.
Never did Bible college.
I don't know if He chose right or not.
Time will tell.
You know.
Alright, praise God.
He chose lowly people
to be a part of His team
to be the inner circle
to do what He wanted to get accomplished.
That's our Lord.
That's our Lord.
How do we apply that
to ourselves? Why don't we stop choosing
the people that we think is bad?
Why don't we allow the Lord
to highlight in our hearts
who should be a part of our teams
in our church?
I said something to some of our team
members that are a part of our
social media and our merch
department. We're going to actually
rebranding that name, but any who.
I said something to all the people on that team members.
I said here's the number one thing I'm looking for.
I'm looking for your consistency. That's it.
Everything else I'm not worried about. If you can be consistent
that to me is good enough.
But sometimes we have a whole resume
before we actually bring somebody on.
Well, did you check off this one? Did you
check off that one? Did you do that one?
We got to be able
to allow God to highlight
in our hearts who He wants to be
a part of our ministry teams. Who He wants
to be a part of certain things that we're doing.
You're still with me. Let me read
this last thing and we're going to pray here.
This is something that I want you
to walk away with today.
Lowliness of mind
to live lowly, okay?
Lowliness of mind or to live lowly
is to do
things
that God is asking us to do
knowing
they will be unnoticed
by man.
Let me say it again.
Let me say it again.
To live lowly
to live of a lowly mind
we have to know
that I'm going to do
things that God is asking me
to do
that will go completely unnoticed
by man.
Man won't notice it.
I won't get the cheers and the hurrahs
and the claps. I won't get the honor.
I won't get... but here's what I want
you to focus on. If we can
live a life like that, I want you
to understand something and nothing
goes unnoticed from God.
We have to.
You want to live lowly.
You have to get to a place
in your life where you know
that it's enough that God
saw me.
That is lowliness.
We have to mature
to the level of whatever
I'm doing, whether it's cleaning toilets
whether it's serving people
whether it's paying for somebody
whether it's preaching, it doesn't matter.
We have to mature
and we have to live this lowly life
knowing that I'm
doing this regardless
if people notice it or not.
I'm doing it because I know
and it's enough for me that my God
notices me.
That's lowliness
of mind. That's living lowly.
And that's when we begin to catch the
revelation that I've been talking about
ever since we started this series.
That I am worthless without the Lord
but now I know
He counted me worthy
to die for.
When I can
think that God, as long as you notice me
I can actually begin to catch the
revelation of you counted me worthy
to die for. That's why
it's enough for me that you notice me.
That's why it's enough
for me if nobody noticed that I just
swept the whole church. That's why
it's enough for me, God, that you notice
that I did something in a random act of kindness
and nobody else noticed but God, you did.
We have to
mature to that level
if we want to walk
lowly.
You with me? Let us stand for prayer.
Father, we thank you.
Father, we thank you.
We thank you for your son.
We thank you, Lord,
for the life of your son, Jesus.
We thank you, Jesus,
that in everything that you have done
since the time that you created
the heavens and the earth,
since the time that you've created man
in your own image, Father, you
and your son have gone low
and low and low and we thank
you for it. We thank you that
you have shown us the example
of what it means to be lowly.
We thank you, Holy Spirit,
that as we behold the Son
we will be conformed
into the image of Him.
And, Father, I'm asking you
that your Word, Lord,
that your Word
would wash over us, God.
Light it up in us.
Light it up in us, O God.
Let us begin to embody
the very Scriptures, God,
that we would be a church
that is found so low, God,
that you would trust us.
That you would trust us.
That you would trust us, O God.
Lord, we desire
to see a manifestation
of your spirit like no other
in this house.
You have said
that this house is a house
of miracles, Lord.
You have prophesied that
and you have told that to us.
You said that this is a house
of miracles.
And now, God, you are giving us
the blueprint of what it means
to walk as a house
of miracles. And we thank you
for it, Lord.
Father, we thank you for it.
You are laying out the blueprint
in front of us as a local body
of the desire you have
for this house. Father, you
desire to have this house be
a house of miracles.
So we thank you
that you are laying in front of us a blueprint
and we are asking you, God,
that you would find trust in us
as individuals, Lord.
And as a corporate body
that you would find trust in us
to be that which you have called us
to be, Lord.
And you are saying to us to rise up.
You are saying to us to rise up
to come up.
And we thank you, God.
We thank you for your mercy.
We thank you for your grace.
We thank you for your word. Let it cut us deep.
Holy Spirit, I ask that
as we leave this morning
that you would not stop
what you have begun. That you would
minister deep. And you would
highlight the areas in our
life that we are not going low yet.
Because you desire
to trust us.
You desire
to trust us.
We love you, Lord.
And we bless your name.
Amen.